Today more than ever before, customer satisfaction is key to long-term business success.

An astounding, 84% of companies report that revenue increases accordingly when they work to improve customer service.

While there are many factors that contribute to a winning customer service experience, interaction is at the foundation of them all.

We’re not just talking how but where.

Your customers expect you to communicate with them on social media.

In fact, 64% of consumers prefer to message rather than call a business.

No more wasted time on the phone or lengthy email you type up only to read, re-read, then re-read again for good measure.

Welcome to the world of social media customer service.

9 tips on building a better brand through social media customer service

We’ve put together a small crash course on social media customer service to help you and your business succeed:

Have a plan
Be your brand
Prioritize your channels
Let them be H.E.A.R.D.
Leverage automation
Monitor your mentions
Be quick
Balance online and offline
Be proactive

1. Have a plan

Customer service is about solving problems.

To do that successfully, you need to have a plan in place.

Doing so will ensure your customer service experience matches the high-quality products and services your customers have come to associate your business with.

As you put together your plan, consider the following questions:

Who will handle the management of your social media customer service?
What resources do they have available to solve problems?
Who should they talk to if they are unable to solve a problem?

Pro Tip: We suggest creating a customer service flowchart that provides clear direction on how to manage a customer inquiry.

2. Be your brand

There are no exceptions to staying on-brand especially when it comes to customer service.

During the brand strategy phase, you defined the framework for your brand which included your brand voice.

Do yourself a favor and reference your brand style guide for details on how you should be interacting with your customers.

Always remember, at any moment, you are an extension of your brand’s voice, not your own.

This isn’t to say you should stick to a robot-like script but understand that too much of you and not enough of your brand might jeopardize the process of humanizing your brand.

3. Prioritize your channels

Odds are you have representation on several social media channels.

Some of those channels are more active than others.

Take time to identify which social channels should take priority.

Pro Tip: we recommend you represent yourself on 2-3 channels total.

4. Let them be H.E.A.R.D.

Even the best companies make mistakes.

If, or rather, when it happens, Disney’s H.E.A.R.D. is a methodology you should consider adding to your social media customer service plan:

Hear. Hear out their side of the story without interruption. Sometimes people just want to be listened to.

Empathize. Empathy is a form of understanding and helps build trust.

Apologize. Even if it’s not your mistake, it’s always a good idea to apologize.

Resolve. Get to the heart of the problem by empowering your employees to put the customer first. Don’t shy away from asking the very direct question, “what can we do to make this right?”

Diagnose. Why did it happen? How do we make sure it doesn’t happen again? Focus on fixing the problem internally.

5. Leverage automation

We all have a desire to be heard and recognized.

When your customers message you, they don’t want to feel like they are talking to a black hole.

They want to know they’re being listened to.

That’s where automated responses come in and boy does it pay to play.

After 12 months of utilizing marketing automation, 32% of businesses claim to see an increase in revenue. This number jumps to 40% after two years.

Whenever possible, we recommend setting up appropriate automatic responses so that when a new customer service issue arises, the customer feels heard and recognized without you having to lift a finger.

Most importantly, this buys you additional time without frustrating the customer.

Pro Tip: Be certain that the automated responses are reflective of your brand voice and consider including a number they can call if the issue at hand is urgent.

6. Monitor your mentions

It’s important to keep a close eye on what your customers are saying about your brand.

While the idea of having to scroll through endless feeds to find tags and mentions might seem daunting, there are shortcuts for that.

Tools such as Hootsuite, Google Alerts, or Talkwalker make it easy for you to monitor mentions and quickly identify issues and complaints before a crisis hits.

If you find a potential customer looking for support, engage.

If you find an existing customer with a question, answer it for them.

Pro Tip: Track your competitor’s mentions and other relevant industry mentions too; you’re likely to come across boatloads of useful consumer insights you can use in the future.

7. Be quick

No thanks to the internet and its obsession with offering everything instantaneously, we’ve become quite the impatient bunch.

This new reality is encouraging customers to shift expectations away from ‘timely’ solutions and towards ‘immediate’ solutions.

If customers are messaging you on social, they want to avoid the long queues and talk now, not later.

A good rule of thumb is to respond within 30 minutes and at most within 24 hours of the initial customer outreach.

Pro Tip: Facebook rewards you with a ‘Very Responsive to Messages’ badge if you have a response rate of 90% and a mean response time of 5 minutes. Imagine algorithms working in your favor every time you engage swiftly with your community.

8. Balance online and offline

With social media, nothing is private unless you make it so.

You don’t want the entire world reading your attempt to rectify an issue so it’s important to quickly identify conversations that provide community value and those that do not.

When dealing with sensitive issues or complaints, you should move the conversation offline.

Handle this process delicately as there is a chance your already frustrated customer might look to make things more difficult for you.

Embrace empathy and send them a ‘we get you’ message privately.

Rather than putting any additional responsibility on their plate, ensure your customer service team calls them and not the other way around.

While simple, it’s often the small things that make a huge difference.

9. Be proactive

History has a way of repeating itself.

Over time, you’ll find a large percentage of your customers have the same concerns or issues.

Alleviate much of the busy work associated with handling these sorts of requests by creating resources that put your customers in the driver's seat.

Identify the questions your customers keep asking and answer them on social media.

Pro Tip: Create an Instagram Highlight that focuses on FAQs for your customers to access.

Start getting social

There you have it.

Our 9 surefire tips to setting up the best social media customer service.

Need help with your social media customer service? Shoot us a message.

Build A Better Brand With These 9 Tips On Social Media Customer Service